wait can we know whats the dynamic between link harkinian and spirit then ? i always like to think Spirit doesn't like any other version of Wars and avoids him as much as he can lol but idk if the same applies here
You'd be right. Spirit still hates him, mainly because he 100% does not believe anything Link Harkinian tells him.
In this AU, Spirit is part of the Chain from the beginning. His reunion with Time leads to both of them revealing right away that they not only know each other, but they used to know another hero who, sadly, died during the war. Spirit is doing... fine. Sure, he sometimes feels like he's going to be strangled by the weight of his own guilt, that he's barely keeping the secret of his hand in Warriors's murder, but he's fine.
Link Harkinian joins the Chain a few months late. He looks and acts so much like Warriors like Spirit immediately starts to spiral. Except, despite the similar stories, he's not Link Walton. He's not even Link Harkinian. He's just Link. He says he's the son of a poor tailor. He grew up as a peasant. He has 5 brothers and sisters. This whole hero business is very overwhelming for a simple guy like himself, so please don't expect much of him.
Spirit knows he's lying. He can't say how. He's so certain this bastard is lying through his teeth. But no one else sees anything wrong with him. The rest of the Chain like him. Time's not bothered by having someone who is and isn't Warriors running around, and just accepts that this is a different guy. Spirit can't, but he knows he killed Link Walton. He killed Link Walton in cold blood. His spirit is so similar... how could this not be Link Walton?
So if I was writing this as a story, I would really be playing up the mystery as to who this new Link is, and if Spirit is suffering from paranoia or if he's right. He gets so close to catching this new Link in a lie a few times, but then he always finds a way to recover, to still sound reasonable. Spirit's going insane. He's losing his goddamn mind.
Worse, the new Link wants to be his friend so badly, more than he wants to befriend anyone else in the Chain. Part of it might be the challenge of it. He was warned early on that Spirit is a dick (but he's our dick, so cut him some slack), and eventually Time tries to smooth things over by revealing that Link looks like Warriors, who was killed and Spirit is still clearly mourning. So now Link is making a point to single Spirit out and conquer the unconquerable. Spirit hates him for this all the more.
But, after a while, it starts to work. Spirit starts to accept that he's just paranoid, and that maybe he's not so fine about the whole murdered thing. When he pushes past his feelings, he realizes that he actually likes this new Link who seems to embody who he always wanted Link Walton to be. Maybe they can be friends.
In the version of this AU that exists as an unwritten one shot in my head, the climax would have been arriving in the new Link's era, right outside of the citadel. Realizing that his new friends are going to meet his dad in less than a minute, he confesses that everything he said about his past was a lie and, actually, he's the son of the Master Knight Lincoln Harkinian and his real name is Link Harkinian.
Everything thinks the lie was a little weird, but once they meet Lincoln and see how weirdly intense Link's upbringing must have been, they sort of let it go as a weird character quirk. Time accepts it because, again, it's not the first time he's met someone's doppelgänger.
Spirit spirals. This must mean that this Link is his captain. He needs to be vigilant. Spirit needs to stop him before he puts everyone through the same hell he suffered through.
But... this really isn't his captain, right? He eavesdrops on a private conversation between Link and Lincoln where Link more or less explains to his dad why he had lied and how much he just wanted to escape the pressure of being his protege. Lincoln is sympathetic. They actually seem like a good family. Lincoln confirms that nothing bad happened during the war. This Link is truly a different person.
So, Spirit accepts it. In a way, he's relieved and even thankful. Despite everything, he had come to view Link as a close friend. Link understood him better than anyone else did. Maybe now he could let himself enjoy the friendship.
Link finds him later, and they have a moment to chat. Link says he knows that Spirit had spied on him, and he was just curious as to why. Spirit confesses that it was because he was so similar to the other version of him who died. While Spirit doesn't tell him the whole story, he confesses that he and Time had very different experiences with Link Walton, and how to this day, he a little afraid that Link Walton would come back and get his revenge. He was sorry that he let his anxiety get in the way.
Link Harkinian, without missing a beat: "So that's why you killed him, right?"
Link: "You're not as subtle as you think."
Link would more or less monologue at this point about how while he doesn't know exactly what happened, he can trust it was bad if Spirit felt the need to murder his way out of it. He talks for a while about his perfection complex, how isolated from other people he's always felt, and how he genuinely feels a lot of kinship with Spirit and still wants to be his friend.
He ends by telling Spirit that if he ever does anything wrong, even if it's only a hint, then he shouldn't hesitate to take him out. He's done it once, so he should do it again.
I need you to imagine that this conversation is at the same crazy intensity as anything canon CTB Spirit and Warriors get up to. Because that's the point-- he's not Link Walton, but he's not an entirely new person. Link Harkinian is a product of different circumstances. And Spirit can now see where they overlap, what pieces are the same.
That's where the one-shot would end: Spirit needing to decide if Link Harkinian has the potential to repeat history, and what Spirit should do about it. Spirit knows he's not fine. He's paranoid. He's afraid he's wrong.
